THE APPLICATION

THE APPLICATION

8/19/11

Today I got my first Hepatitis vaccine. Since we are planning to put "1/9/12" as our availability date for our mission, we need to get going on our medical exams and shots in order for us to be finished by that time. We also have to fill out an on-line application for a mission, which we will get after the Bishop enters our information. We don't plan to request any particular type of mission or place. We made a list of all the things we need to do; individually and as a couple. It's exciting to actually be gettting ready!

We finially were able to click the "send" button on our on-line application. Then we made an appointment with Bishop DeLora and President Schofield. On the application, they had all the information about what we would be committing to; but when we met with President Schofield, he let us know that we were the first Senior Couple Missionaries that he'd had apply since his calling as Stake President two years before. So he very carefully went over each requirement as though each one might be the "deal breaker". Of course we agreed to all the requirements, and he said that he'd add some comments and send the application in to Salt Lake City. A few days later, we got an email from him saying that he'd sent it in, and The Countdown began!

We were excited when the Missionary Department of the Church emailed us that they had received our application. Our son, Justin, set up an on-line spread sheet where each of the family members could guess on which continent we would be , which country, which mission and the type of mission. Some really fun guesses started being posted, and for the first time, I wondered if maybe we should have requested where we wanted to go. Even though the missionary department let us know that our call should come in four to six weeks; the mailman immediately became our best friend. Richard and I would jocky over who got to the mail first each day.

One day, at the chuch, I saw President Schofield and told him that I'd heard that he could track our application as it went to the medical committee, or the financial committee of the Missionary Department. He reamarked about how eager I was to get our call, and I told him that I just wanted to get it, see that it was to Pocatello Idaho, paint a smile on my face and get ready to go. (I'd lived in Pocatello two different times when I was little, and I know there are good people there. I don't know why it bcame my scape-goat of an unexciting assignment.) He didn't catch the sarcasm, and broke into a huge President-Schofield-grin. "Wouldn't that be wonderful!" he exclaimed. "We just had a missionary return from there, and are having another one leave for there in a few weeks. Wouldn't that be great if Pocatello became Our Stake's Mission?" I said, "It sure would be!" and became even more determined to have my head and heart ready for any assignment.